Today in History - March 15

Published 8:00 pm, Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Today is Friday, March 15, the 74th day of 2002. There are 291 days left in the year. This is "Buzzard Day" in Hinckley, Ohio.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 15, 1919, the American Legion was founded, in Paris.

On this date:

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

In 1767, the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in Waxhaw, S.C.

In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state.

In 1875, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal, by Pope Pius IX.

In 1913, President Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.

In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.

In 1964, actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second.

In 1975, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis died near Paris at age 69.

In 1977, 25 years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.

Ten years ago: Democratic presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath, and clashing over economic issues. The United Nations officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia.

Five years ago: President Clinton spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon. Greek frogmen and U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania by that country's descent into anarchy.

One year ago: Chechen men wielding knives and claiming to have a bomb hijacked a Russian plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi city of Medina. (Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.) Actress Ann Sothern died in Ketchum, Idaho, at age 92.